Dining out, eco-recession style

Want to dine at your favorite eco-restaurant more often — but can’t afford it? Check again, because like their ungreen counterparts, many green-minded restaurants are slashing their prices and offering special deals.

At least they are in my neighborhood. Case in point: Real Food Daily, perhaps the best known vegan restaurant in the L.A. area. This place makes local, organic vegan food from scratch, and has a full organic and biodynamic wine menu too.

And right now, you can get a $10 lunch deal, made slightly inconvenient by the fact that you can only get the details of the deal from the waiters, who each carry around little orange cards about the deal to show you upon request. But basically, you can pick from a soup-n-salad lunch or a sandwich/wrap-n-side dealio, saving yourself a few bucks off the regular prices.

I ended up getting an RFD burger with a side of sea veggies (above). My friend went for the week’s special — Burger in a Salad — for $14.75.

As a member of the Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch Program, Border Grill only serves sustainable seafood — alongside all-organic rice and beans and lots of locally grown ingredients — and organic wines!

And lest vegetarians and vegans get turned off by the meat-inclusive menu, Border Grill marks dishes made with at least 80% plant-based ingredients with a little green symbol to encourage people to eat less meat. Explains the website:

Because 18% of greenhouse gas emissions come from livestock–more than from transportation–and Americans eat about twice as much of the daily protein recommended by the USDA, Border Grill is encouraging guests to get meat out of the center of the plate and build the meal around vegetables, grains, beans, salads, and fruit.

How about the eco-conscious restaurants in your ‘hood? Are they offering any tasty stimulus deals?

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